Giorgio says “This version of Vexations is made reading a “translation’ of my piano rendition as a midi file then read again into a MaxMSP pitch tracker patch that uses an emulation of the 1972 Eminent 310 string synthesizer.” Recorded in Roberts Creek, British Columbia, Canada.

Veda says – “I first played Vexation for 30 minutes (with a timer, no cheating). so intense. and this conversation started up, with a repeating question and improvised answers. after the thirty minutes were up I pressed record, and stuck to the repeated question and made new improvised answers. “

Haworth Hodgkinson – Convexations

Haworth says – “Convexations” is a set of procedures for deconstructing and reconstructing Satie’s “Vexations”. This is one possible realisation, using 28 synthesiser voices. I began with Satie’s original “Vexations”. Where Satie puts a sign and says it is “customary” to play the unharmonised bass line at this point, I chose to disregard that custom, so I am only using the two harmonised paragraphs. I counted 28 distinct pitches in the original, if I treat enharmonic equivalents as the same pitch. I rewrote the original as 28 parts for 28 instruments, where each instrument can only play one pitch. I added or subtracted beats from each of the 28 parts so that they are all different lengths and will slip out of phase when they repeat. I aligned them, however, so that they begin out of phase and come into sync at the very end. I then thinned out the texture, so that I begin with only three voices, playing their three notes with silent gaps, gradually adding more pitches until all 28 are present just before they come into sync for a recognisable iteration of “Vexations”.